Safety needle assembly

A safety needle assembly has a collar or ring that is rotatably mounted to a needle hub, which may be connected to a medical device such as a syringe. The needle assembly may be connected to the syringe by the user grasping the needle hub in first and second embodiments, or turning of the needle sheath in other embodiments. In all of the embodiments, the collar of the needle assembly may be rotated by turning the needle sheath, which is designed to interact with the collar. In some of the embodiments, the needle hub likewise interacts with the collar in such a way that by rotating the needle sheath, the needle hub is likewise rotated for connection to a syringe. When an exposed needle is to be covered, after the needle sheath has been removed, a housing connected to the collar is pivotally moved to cover the needle. Mechanisms are provided at both the collar and the housing so that once the contaminated needle is covered, the needle assembly may be removed from the syringe for disposal by rotating the needle housing. In all of the embodiments disclosed, the needle sheath does not come into contact with the needle hub and the collar is rotatable about the needle hub.